The present invention relates generally to penetrating and impact weapons and more particularly to the use of a hydrocarbon warhead to defeat a surface target and/or a hardened and deeply buried target.
As research and technology continuously produce weapons more sophisticated, deadly, and accurate than their predecessors, the need for effective defensive mechanisms and strategies to be employed against such weapons obviously increases. During a conflict, one main objective of these defenses is to protect vital military facilities, the destruction of which would leave a nation or region vulnerable to aggressors. In the modern era of long-range weapons of mass destruction, one intuitively simple defensive strategy that has so far proved successful in withstanding weapons advances is the positioning of military facilities underground. While conventional kinetic warheads are capable of causing major near-surface damage, most of these weapons are relatively useless against a target buried and fortified deep within the earth. Such a target is typically referred to as a hardened and deeply buried target or HDBT. Some weapons have been developed to destroy shallow underground targets, but the penetration of these weapons is typically limited to no more than about 30 feet of reinforced concrete or rock, whereas a HDBT may be located hundreds of feet below the surface. In most instances, even shockwaves propagated from surface explosions have little effect on a HDBT.
Because control and command centers, as well as facilities for weapons development, manufacture, storage, and deployment, are increasingly being housed in such underground structures, weapons and strategies must be developed to defeat them in order to efficiently end a conflict. To date, only nuclear warheads have the power to disable HDBT""s, but the use of such weapons has been generally deemed as impractical, given the far-reaching destructive effects of a nuclear explosion, including massive xe2x80x9ccollateral damagexe2x80x9d, and the limited area of most regional conflicts.
Additionally there are needs for weapons that may be used to attack lightly hardened targets and buildings that may be free standing, buried, semi-buried or lightly hardened and buried at shallow depth. Attack of such targets with conventional high explosive weapons carries with it the danger of unacceptable collateral damage to nearby structures such as schools, residences, or hospitals.
The ability to defeat both soft industrial and HDBT""s is becoming increasingly important for the success of military operations. Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient and practical method of accomplishing this task with weapons of low collateral damage potential.
The present invention is directed to a hydrocarbon gas-phase warhead that can be used to attack soft, and hardened and deeply buried targets.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for defeating a hard and deeply buried target, wherein the target comprises a plurality of air vents that lead to the buried target, comprising the steps of positioning a warhead in, or near, at least one of the plurality of air vents, expelling a payload from the warhead into the at least one of the plurality of air vents, therein creating a combustible mixture of expelled payload and air inside the target, delaying ignition of the mixture for a predetermined amount of time, and then igniting the mixture to produce an explosion inside the target.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a warhead is provided for defeating a soft, or hard and deeply buried target, comprising a casing, a payload contained within the casing, and an igniter, whereby the payload is expelled from the casing at a predetermined rate, creating a mixture of expelled payload and air, and the mixture is ignited or detonated by the igniter after a predetermined amount of time.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a warhead is provided for defeating a hard and deeply buried target, comprising a casing, a payload contained within the casing, a means for expelling the payload contained within the casing to the surrounding area thereby creating an explosive payload and air mixture, and an igniter adapted to ignite or detonate the explosive mixture.
According to yet a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of defeating a soft target having an exterior and an interior, the method comprising: penetrating the exterior of the target with a penetrating warhead with a trajectory suitable to locate the warhead within the interior of the target; releasing a payload material contained within the warhead thereby forming a payload-air mixture within the interior of the building; and igniting the payload-air mixture after a predetermined amount of time.